Thanks everyone for your feedback, 

If I stay around $200 seems you have a few picks. So far I get this list top 2 are in the showdown unless someone points me at a product I have missed. 

Tascam Dr 40-  Has all the features I want XLR inputs, 4 track. 
 
Zoom Hn2- bummer mini jack inputs  but I like that it comes with Wave Lab LE 7 which I was going to pay $100 for anyhow!   Zoom Hn4  over budget Tascam and H2 is better deal.  
 
Roland r 05- Only 2 track stupid 1/4" input jacks are not matched for stereo recording. 
Yamaha C24 - Should sell for $100 2 track, mini jack, flash card boo
Olympus LS 14  -Same, overpriced 2 track, mini jacks, 

Looks like you've done good research. I've nothing to add except I was surprised to see a friends studio in Dallas. He shares a place with a a post production company and set them up a simple and quick VO setup using the Zoom Hn2 - has worked out remarkably well for them in this pro post scenario.

This has been an interesting little research project. 
At first I was overwhelmed by the 4 pages of products on a few of the main music ware sites. But I quickly eliminated 80% of them by focusing on a price limit of $200, and wishing for at least 4 tracks. 

It's amazing in the $70-$150 price range they are almost all identical in features. If I was only wanting stereo recording then it would have been a lot harder to narrow the search. And then some like the Roland and Yamaha should be in that price range but are grossly overpriced, why bother making a product and then offering nothing extra other than a brand name? 

So I could not decide between the Tascam DR 40 and the Zoom Hn2 and what I did was put them both on my wish list. So My daughter gets to make a random decision and I won't know whch one I will get until it arrives. 

Note: Amazon has the best pricing right now.  

Got the Tascam DR 40! I like it. So far everything is as it should be and nothing is too terribly disappointing. The Zoom is the better choice if your a movie maker, I did learn that from some other threads on other sites. 
But the Tascam DR 40  is the only one at $150 that comes with 4 tracks and XLR inputs. 
Now waiting for delivery of the Yamaha DTX 400K digital drums, my other birthday gift. Reviews to follow...

I bought the cheapest Tascam out there last year for $50.  works good.  You have to be careful with the mics and not distort them, but at 24 bits it ain't that noisy.  I used them on a last minute job for a friend recording a concert in a church w/ a vocalist/piano.  Found a good spot and recorded the whole hour long thing.  It took some cleaning up in SF but sounded remarkably good for $50.  It worked so well I used it on the next one w/ no complaints - I'm not sure how much better it would sound if I had spent an extra  benjamin or more.  For most common jobs it should work fine.

@

I'm a big fan of the Boss recorders because of the COSM-FX and amp sims, they just sound great to me. Good deal on the little one;

Boss Micro Br-80

Late to the party - I just picked up a Tascam DR-40, and I am quite pleased with my purchase.

Over the last couple years I've worked with portable recorders from Sony, Zoom, and Tascam. If money were not an issue I'd probably have purchased a Sony PCM-D50, I think it sounds just a tad better than the Tascam.

The DR-40 sounds great, and the second set of inputs works well with most of my microphones. The noise floor is a bit too high for passive ribbon microphones, and the phantom power is not quite up to the task of powering two C-414s.

So far I am really happy with my choice!

Thanks for the updates folks. 
AT- Ya I don't expect much for $150, It's not like your going to get a Pair of $600 mikes right! I assume they'll be good enough for sketch pads and band practice. 
The main reason I wanted this model is it's the only one at this price point with XLR inputs. 


WST3 - Glad to hear it's working for you too. I knew the Phantom power would be next to useless as this is true of any device that would run on AA cells. I plan on only using the inputs for guitar, Bass and a feed from a mixing board. 

I get to try it out tonight at my birthday party as I invited a few musician friends over and well sneak into the studio to jam. The acid test will be if it works easily under the influence! 

can't wait to hear how it worked at your birthday jam!

And I hope I did not mislead - I was really quite surprised at how well the AA based phantom power worked with some more modern microphones. I used a pair of Earthworks SR-70s plugged directly into the DR-40, and was able to record on batteries the entire time I was using it. I'm pretty sure it shortened the life of those three batteries, but it worked - which is an important data point!

Also tried it with a pair of plain old dynamic microphones last night, and reports that the noise floor is a bit high for such things are only partly true. When recording a couple of guitar amplifiers up close and personal there was no noise problem! When recording vocals it was a little more of a problem, but it was easily fixed by editing the file. In fact, a noise gate did a pretty good job of cleaning up the track, but I do get picky<G>!

Well the party went as party will go and we didn't get a chance to jam at all! Couldn't motivate anyone. So still haven't given it a try.
Tomorrow I'll play with it. 
Good news about the phantom power, I think I will use a wall wart when recording concerts, I'll try it first to make sure it dos not add AC hum. I see you can also power it via USB port. 

The condenser mikes I have for live concerts are these tiny Shure choir overheads and I don't think they need much power. Finding a place for it will be tricky. Looking into the remote control.  

For band rehearsal I was going to stereo mike the drums with the built ins,  and then a board mix to 1/2. 

To bad it can't be used as a true 4 track, as in overdubbing on all 4 tracks separately, so far one disappointment. 

 I read the manual ( pat on back)

Excited about the foot controller which would allow hands free operation. Two uses....band rehearsal and live gig playback of backing tracks! try that with your stinking iPhone ha!